inspire and educate the children of
today to follow STEM subjects. They
are the engineers and scientists of
tomorrow and without them, our
ability to innovate and progress will
diminish.
Dan Durda: Another renaissance
man who regaled me with talks
of his work with XCor Aerospace.
He gave a sparkling talk on his
flying jets and booking flights on
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo
and XCor’s Lynx as a payload
specialist primarily to do science.
However the largest portion of
his talk was around comets and
asteroids. Given the recent pass of
Asteroid DA14 and the Chelyabinsk
meteorite strike his talk generated
much interest. With over 20 years of
experience in the field of collisional
and dynamical evolution of Near
Earth and Kuiper Belt objects, Dan
outlined the reason for the Sentinel
Mission. The Sentinel Mission is the
brainchild of Rusty Schweickart’s
B612 Foundation offering the
public a chance to fund a privately
owned and operated mission to
launch an infrared telescope in a
solar orbit. This telescope will track
and map asteroids and other NEOs
(Near Earth Objects) that prove
a danger to our planet. Suffice
to say the timing of this mission
could not be better given rising
public awareness that we live in
a cosmic shooting gallery. To find
out more about B612’s proposal
visit
http://b612foundation.org/
sentinelmission/
Britney Schmidt: A post-doctoral
astrobiologist in the Planetary
Science
field,
Britney
gave
fascinating insights into a mission
to Europa, one of Jupiter’s most
exciting satellites with the promise
of extremophile life existing there.
She spoke about how the orbit
of Io and Jupiter’s own immense
magnetic field, has huge bearing
on Europa itself giving it tidal energy.
Understanding Earth’s geological
cycles also helps us create an
analogue for Europa’s ecosystem
too. Britney then laid out a
compelling case for visiting Europa;
thanks to its warm salty oceans
and high energy, the mediums are
there for extremophile life to exist,
perhaps in a proto state. You can
view more about her proposed
mission at www.europa.seti.org.
What followed later that evening
was quite possibly the most
emotional moment of my life, next
to being present at the final Shuttle
launch. A simple photo opportunity
with childhood heroes, many of
whose lives and lunar missions
through NASA I have followed and
read about time after time while
growing up. To be sharing a picture
with them was the proudest and
most epic memory from that event.
The
Spacefest
V
Banquet
followed with many of my friends
being seated with and chatting
the rocks and took forever to come
back down, before being bounced
up in the air again. We also talked
at length about his interest for
geology, which under the tutelage
of Professor Lee Silver grew into a
passion for the benefit of Apollo XV’s
mission. Dave actively campaigned
against Deke Slayton’s (then head
of the Astronaut Office) misgivings
to trade abort propellant on the
descent stage of the Lunar Module
for a telephoto lens! Clearly Dave
realised the scientific value of where
he was going. He also remembered
my gift to him the previous day of
Captain Cook’s journals and was
already enjoying reading them
greatly.
Exacting scale models of nearly every spacecraft were on display.
away with these legends. My
choice; Dave Scott. Dave was most
notably Commander of Apollo XV,
the first “J” mission and the first to stay
on the Moon for 3 days delivering a
truly magnificent scientific mission.
But that was not his only mission,
he flew side seat in the almost
disastrous Gemini VIII alongside one
Neil Armstrong and was a key part
of Apollo X. Dave became the first
off world driver on Apollo XV as he
demonstrated with the famous lunar
rover. He remarked at dinner that
“that car kicked like a mule” over
Image: SpaceFest
Dave also told my banquet table
how he and James Irwin discovered
a chunk of the Moon’s original crust.
Later called “The Genesis Rock” it
helped transform our theoretical
understanding of how the Moon
was formed. Our table also included
a group of Swiss schoolchildren
who come to Spacefest every
year. They were clearly engaged
and asking many intelligent and
mature questions of Dave about
the nature of the Universe, the
Moon, his experiences on it and the
Earth itself. It felt like a torch was
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